ARLINGTON — It’s not just a place to go when you’re sick.
Cascade Valley Hospital’s new 40,000-square-foot building features a 30-foot-tall lobby with comfortable sofas, a fireplace and an espresso counter in the gift shop. The new, light-filled cafe upstairs offers inexpensive food and a view. Meeting rooms are available for use by community groups and an Asian-style roof garden offers a place to get away.
Then there’s the art collection.
Studies show that visual art promotes healing among hospital patients and helps soothe their families, said Kelly Penny, the hospital’s community relations director.
Most of the art collection is hung in areas open to the public, as a way to thank taxpayers for funding the $45 million expansion and renovation at the hospital, Penny said.
The Arlington Arts Commission helped gather for display about 60 works of art by well-known artists from Snohomish, Island, Skagit, San Juan and Whatcom counties.
Arlington’s beloved muralist Harry Engstrom has painted a huge oil mural on the wall behind the lobby. Called “Cascades’ Valley,” the mural is inspired by views along the Sauk, Suiattle and Stillaguamish river valleys.
Camano Island glass artist Jack Archibald as an equally impressive piece in the cafe. His stained glass installation, “Cascade Constellation,” covers most of the north window space.
The best chance to see the entire art collection is Sunday afternoon when the hospital opens its revolving lobby doors for a celebration and tour.
It also will be the first and last chance to see all of the inner workings of the hospital before staff and patients move in. The new building triples the size of the hospital’s emergency room, includes an up-to-date lab and pharmacy, as well as a digital imaging and out-patient chemotherapy departments.
Arlington’s first hospital opened downtown in 1909. It was moved to its current location in the 1950s and was expanded in the 1980s. Now that the new hospital building is complete, the 1980s portion building will be renovated. When that’s complete, the 1950s-era building will be torn down to make way for more parking.
“We’re very excited about the grand opening. When everything is done, we’ll essentially have a new hospital, stem to stern,” the hospital’s top administrator Clark Jones said. “Our costs came in under estimate, allowing us to do a little more. All sorts of good things are happening.”
The hospital recently won an award from a national health-care consulting firm, naming Cascade Valley as one of the top 100 hospitals in the country for costs and services offered.
The Cascade Valley Hospital District serves north Snohomish County. Voters approved the expansion project in May 2007.
Gale Fiege: 425-339-3427; gfiege@heraldnet.com.
See it Sunday
Cascade Valley Hospital open house and celebration, 1 to 4 p.m. (ribbon-cutting 1:30 p.m.) Sunday, 330 S. Stillaguamish Ave., Arlington.
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